My tattered monarch butterfly continues to return day in and day out. Her favorite nectar is from my white zinnia flowers.
She makes me think of resilience. A little beat up, but she continues on.
My girl returns
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Tag Archives: Southwest Florida butterfly garden
Perfect spot
A huge perk of planting a butterfly garden by your front door is where caterpillars choose to make its chrysalis – right by the front door.
A monarch chrysalis.
A little battered
The last few days the same female monarch butterfly has been visiting the garden. You ask, how can I be sure? Well, this beauty has seen better days and has very distinct torn wings.
She is truly incredibly to watch flutter about. A few times she flew by extremely close, almost as if she was saying hello.
Every time I see her she is stopping by one of the five potted zinnia plants, going from flower to flower. Once she has enough nectar she will fly to the giant milkweed, sometimes laying eggs, other times just resting. The photo below shows her resting next to a monarch caterpillar who was busy eating.
The queen
It has been a long time since the Queen Butterfly has visited the garden.
This beauty also uses milkweed to lay its eggs. It moved between my milkweed and the blooms on the wild lime tree.
It is a little smaller than the monarch with a wingspan between 6.7-9.8 cm. The wings are a mahogany coloring with black borders and small white spots.
Bzzzzz
The wild lime tree, which I recently trimmed, is blooming like crazy again. The flowers are stunning and are attracting a ton of bees. Nature is fun to watch.
